Earley was a prominent feature in the rise of Spencer Torkelson to the No. 1 overall draft pick of the 2020 MLB Draft. Undrafted out of high school, Torkelson was selected by the Tigers as a third baseman despite playing his career at ASU as a first baseman. He is the first third baseman to go first overall since Pat Burrell in 1998 and just the fifth third baseman to be selected first overall in MLB Draft history. Had he been selected as a first baseman, it would have been the first time in history a right-handed first baseman had gone first overall in the MLB Draft while also being the first ever college first baseman to be selected first.
It also marked the first time a college position player went from being undrafted out of high school to the No. 1 overall pick since Nebraska outfielder Darin Erstad in 1995 – though it should be noted Erstad's high school didn't have a baseball program. Arkansas third baseman Jeff King in 1986 would mark the last time prior to that.
The illustrious career of Torkelson was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic that ended the 2020 season early. However, Torkelson still put together one of the best careers in Sun Devil history, finishing within two home runs (54) of the long-standing ASU school record of 56 by Bob Horner - a mark Torkelson easily would have surpassed with a full season. Torkelson finished with the second highest career slugging percentage in school history (.729). Torkelson played 35 multi-game series at ASU and homered at least once in 28 of those. He played 20 Pac-12 series and homered in 18 - the season finales against Cal (2018) and Stanford (2019) being the only exceptions. He had at least one hit in 104 of his 129 career games and multiple hits in 50 of those.
Torkelson bat .337 in his career with 130 RBIs, 152 runs scored, 33 doubles and 54 long balls. He slugged a an incredible .729 over his career – also just shy of Mitch Jones school record .731 from 1999-2000. He struck out just 104 times in his career while walking 110 times. He was also solid defensively, recording a career fielding percentage of .987.
Torkelson was a two-time Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, given annually to the top player in college baseball. He was a unanimous All-America selection as both a freshman and sophomore. Collegiate Baseball also tabbed him as an All-American in his COVID-19-shortened junior season and he was the Preseason National Player of the Year by several outlets in 2020.
He will go down in the history books as the first Pac-12 player in history to be crowned the league home run champion in three consecutive seasons as he also led the league when the 2020 season was canceled. He was only the third Pac-12 player in history to post back-to-back 20+ home run seasons. He was the nation's home run champion as a freshman with 25 home runs – two more than any other player. Torkelson also donned the Red, White and Blue as he competed for the U.S.A. Collegiate National Baseball team following his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Under Earley's guidance, Hunter Bishop and Spencer Torkelson earned unanimous All-America honors in 2019 and formed one of the most potent offensive duos in college baseball over the past decade as they helped the squad return to the NCAA Tournament. Bishop and Torkelson were semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy, given annually to the top players in college baseball.Under Earley, ASU led the nation in home runs during the 2019 regular season with 92 (finishing with 94 including the postseason), the most since the 1993 Sun Devils recorded 97 homers. The Sun Devils were the NCAA statistical champion in home runs per game at 1.65.
The 94 homers were easily a Pac-12 record for the BBCOR era of batting standards, surpassing Oregon State’s total of 67 in 2018. ASU was the first Power Five school in that BBCOR era to have multiple players reach the 20-home run milestone thanks to Torkelson (23) and Bishop (22). ASU was just the 5th team in Pac-12 history to have two different players reach 20 homers in one season.
Three players reached double digits in homers (Torkelson, Bishop and Trevor Hauver) while two others came just shy with nine each (Carter Aldrete and Lyle Lin).As a team, the Sun Devils bat .310 on the season, the 10th-highest average in the nation and the highest for a Sun Devil team since the 2010 squad bat .337. It was easily the highest batting average in the BBCOR batting technology era. ASU's .519 slugging percentage was third in the nation and also the highest since that 2010 squad (.531). ASU averaged 8.2 runs per game, the seventh-best total nationally.
ASU was 17th in the NCAA in on-base percentage (.398) and also ranked in the Top-45 in hits (15th), runs (15th), walks (36th), doubles (33rd) and triples (43rd).
Bishop was a unanimous All-American in 2019 in one of the top offensive campaigns for a Sun Devil in recent memory. He became the first Sun Devil Baseball player to go in the first round of the MLB Draft since 2012 and just the 13th Top-10 pick in Sun Devil lore.
The junior slugger burst on to the scene, climbing over 100 positions in nearly every draft projection to earn his selection by the Giants. Bishop knocked 22 home runs on the season the second-best total in the Pac-12 behind teammate Spencer Torkelson and 10th in the country. He had just 10 combined home runs in his first two seasons in Phoenix.
At the conclusion of his season, he was eighth in the country and second in the Pac-12 with a .748 slugging percentage while fifth in the league with a .479 on-base percentage for a gaudy 1.227 OPS. He was seventh nationally and second in the Pac-12 with 166 total bases and finished third in the league 63 RBIs, which was 40th nationally. He was fourth in the Pac-12 with 67 runs scored, a total that also ranked in the top-25 nationally.
Torkelson also earned unanimous All-America honors in 2019 and was the Pac-12 home run leader for the second season in a row in 2019, finishing the season with 23 – good for fifth in the nation. He became the first Pac-12 player to lead the conference in homers in back-to-back seasons since Oregon State's Michael Conforto 2012 and 2013, though it should be noted Conforto only hit 13 and 11 in those seasons. Torkelson is only the third player in Pac-12 history to have back-to-back 20+ home run seasons.
Torkelson has 48 homers in his career, needing just nine to surpass Bob Horner's long-standing school record of 56. He would go on to compete this summer on the USA Collegiate National Baseball team for the second consecutive season alongside teammate Alika Williams.
Torkelson ranked in the Top-10 in the Pac-12 in a slew of categories including homers (1st), walks (41/8th), average (.351/8th), hits (85/3rd/33rd nationally), runs (69/3rd/18th nationally), RBIs (66/2nd/27th nationally), slugging (.707/3rd/17th nationally) and total bases (171/1st/5th nationally).
Earley’s work with the Sun Devil hitters could not be understated in 2018 as he coached up one of the elite offenses in the conference, despite fielding, statistically, the youngest lineup in the country. The Sun Devils had the nation’s home run leader as well as the nations triples leader in 2018 and three position players were named to various All-American Teams, along with two Golden Spike Nominees and a Team USA selection.
Earley’s coaching led to one of the most prolific freshman campaigns in collegiate baseball history as Spencer Torkelson became the first freshman to ever lead the nation in home runs, finishing with 25 on the season.
Torkelson knocked two more home runs than any other player and just one shy of the NCAA freshman record. Torkelson was just the sixth player to reach 25 home runs since the BBCOR batting technology changes took effect in 2011 and the only freshman in the NCAA to reach the milestone in that time.
Against Washington State, he surpassed the previous Sun Devil freshman record of 11 home runs set by Barry Bonds in 1983. Torkelson finished tied with Bob Horner (1978) for second in ASU single-season history, just two shy of Mitch Jones' school record 27 in 2000.
Torkelson slugged .743 on the season (25 homers, 12 doubles), the third-highest total for any freshman in the NCAA in the past two decades and the highest for a freshman in the BBCOR era (since 2011). Only Rickie Weeks (.849 in 2001) and Jeremy Baltz (.771, 2010) have posted higher freshman slugging percentages in the past 20 years. Torkelson was named to multiple All-American Teams, selected to play on team USA, a Golden Spikes Award nominee, First Team All-Pac12, Pac 12 Freshman of the year and was the NCAA Freshman of the Year.
Earley mentored outfielder Gage Canning, who wrapped the season as one of the elite five-tool players in the country, finishing with a .369 average and a Pac-12 leading 87 hits on the season. Canning was the national leader in triples with 11, and finished with 25 in his career at ASU – good for third in school history and the most since Ed Irvine tied the school record of 26 between 1977-79.
Canning reached base in 54 of 55 games for the Sun Devils this season and logged a hit in 47 of those. He led the team with multiple hits in 26 games and had 11 games with three or more hits, becoming the first Sun Devil player to have at least 10 games with 3+ hits since Brett Wallace did so from 2007-08.
With one more home run, Canning would have become the first player in the BBCOR batting era (since 2011) to record double digit numbers in doubles, triples AND home runs. He finished the season with nine homers, 17 doubles and 11 triples, slugging .648 for the season – good for third in the Pac-12 and 38th nationally.
Defensively, Canning was nearly flawless after shifting to center field and logged just one error on the season on 144 chances for a .993 fielding percentage. Canning was a finalist for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, named to multiple All-America Teams, First Team All-Pac-12, Pac-12 All-Defensive team and a Golden Spikes Award nominee. Canning was a fifth-round selection by the Washington Nationals.
Lyle Lin and Carter Aldrete both raised their batting averages by 20 points while being selected to an All-Pac-12 team. Lin went on to be drafted by the Houston Astros in the 29th round.
Overall, three of ASU’s freshmen (Torkelson, Alika Williams and Gage Workman) finished among the top four freshman batting averages in the Pac-12. Torkelson and Workman were named Freshman All-Americans. The team combined for 50 home runs in 2018 after hitting 38 in 2017. The team’s overall batting average also climbed 20 points from 2017 to .290 on the season – the second-highest total in the Pac-12 behind 2018 NCAA Champion Oregon State. ASU improved in every single offensive statistical category from 2017-2018.
In regular season play, ASU was ranked second in the Pac-12 in slugging percentage (.446), hits (549), batting avg. (290) and total bases (843), while leading the Pac in triples (24).
Earley also serves as team’s outfield coach and helped pace one of the top outfields in the Pac-12 in 2017. On the year, first-team All-Pac-12 selection Gage Canning started in every single game for the Sun Devils and while providing stellar defense with zero errors on the season and leading the team in outfield assists.
Canning led the team in virtually every hitting category, including batting average (.332), runs (37), doubles (12), triples (8), home runs (6) and slugging percentage (.538). He was the only player in the Pac-12 to finish with a double-digit number of doubles while also posting at least six home runs and six triples.
Earley also helped oversee the emergence of Hunter Bishop as one of the exciting young freshmen in the country on the year. The freshman earned All-Pac-12 honors and finished his 2017 campaign with an impressive .301 batting average, five doubles, four triples and five home runs. He ranked second on the team – behind only Canning – in batting average, runs scored (27), triples, home runs and slugging percentage (.484). Bishop started 31 games in the outfield season to become just the sixth ASU freshman in the past 15 years to start over 50 percent of the season in the outfield.
During the 2017 pitching coach search, Earley was granted a waiver to recruit by the NCAA. Earley assisted in recruiting during the spring and summer of 2017. During that time Earley helped identify prospects and recruits for the 2017 through 2020 recruiting classes. The 2017 recruiting class was ranked fourth in the country andt tops in the Pac 12.
“The experience I gained recruiting the west coast in my first year of coaching will prove to be invaluable, also being able to learn from Coach Greenspan, who I believe is the one of the best recruiters in the country has helped me tremendously,” Earley said.
Earley played under Smith at Indiana from 2008-10 before going on to a professional career with the Chicago White Sox organization. He played professional baseball for six seasons, including time with the team's Triple-A affiliate, the Charlotte Knights.
The outfielder finished his playing days with the Southern Illinois Miners in the independent Frontier League in 2015.
He finished his professional career with 559 hits, 117 doubles, 38 home runs and a .284 average. He was named to four All-Star teams in his professional career and was also named a member of the Southern Illinois All-Decade Team.
Earley earned Third Team All-Big Ten recognition during his senior campaign at IU in 2010 after he tied for fourth in the conference in home runs with 13, and finished the season batting .352. Earley was the only player in the Big Ten with double digit homeruns and stolen bases during the 2010 season.
He was selected by the White Sox in the 29th round of the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft.
Following his career in professional baseball, he spent time in 2016 as an associate scout for the New York Mets.
Earley is married to his wife, Lisa, and together they have a son, Marshall, and two daughters, Mia and Madison.